A Quick Guide to Cursive Writing – Steps & Tips

Besides reading, listening, and writing skills, good handwriting also significantly improves language, writing speed, memory, and concentration. Cursive handwriting is a type of flowy writing in which letters are joined together beautifully, creating an artistic effect on writing.

Cursive writing is used in calligraphy, art, and for creating handwritten letters. You might have noticed that still wedding and greeting cards and menus at the hotels are printed in cursive handwriting, enhancing the text’s beauty.

The cursive form of several alphabets is used, and the writing strokes required to write each alphabet improve writing speed and quality. Many or all letters in a word are linked in certain alphabets and often make a single complex stroke in one word.

Your cursive writing speed and quality depend on your writing efficiency because you need to write many letters and words without lifting the pen. It means the tip of your pen stays on the paper that creates many beautiful strokes, joins letters, takes a bit of gap between the words to maintain a consistent writing flow.

Although it looks challenging to write in cursive, you can master it once you get to know about the technique like:

• How to hold your pen?
• How and when to lift your pen?
• How to add strokes to each letter?

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How to Write in Cursive?

You will need the following things to learn cursive writing:

• Pen/pencil (ink/ball pen)
• A book or paper with four-ruled lines
• Cursive handwriting worksheets to practice

Remember that you can master cursive writing quickly if you know the importance of using the lines correctly while writing. Be careful about writing the letters within their specified lines. However, after learning cursive writing, you will write in cursive on plain paper.

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Step # 1

Try to practice the simple entrance/exit stroke. Bear in mind that the cursive script is all about joined letters, and all small letters have entry and exit strokes to ensure quick writing. These are called entrance/exit strokes because they are used before starting a new word or sentence. You need to start the exit/exit stroke on the second line and touch the third line. Your stroke should not go beyond these lines.

Step # 2
The next step is to practice an upward stroke that starts from the fourth line from the bottom and touches the first line.

Step # 3

Practice the curve stroke used to write letters like a, c, e, d, g, o, and q. You can start writing right on the second line from the bottom, curve it almost 90 degrees and repeat the curved stroke anticlockwise without lifting the pen.

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Step # 4

The lowercase alphabets like b, f, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, u, v, w, x y, z all start with an upward stroke. Some of them touch the entire top line (ex: h, k, l)

And some alphabets start from the last line and reach only the third stroke line (i and j).

Whereas some letters also touch the bottom last line (ex: “f.”)

Step # 5
You can start practising the letters that require multiple strokes like you, n, m.

You can begin with writing ‘u’ by following these steps:

• Place your pen’s tip on the second bottom line
• Take an upward stroke and touch the third line
• Make a downward stroke
• Take it back upward by making an upward curve
• Gently give another downward stroke that touches the second bottom line again.

Step # 6

The alphabets like b, f, h, k, and l are difficult to write, but you can write them quickly if you practice a few times.

Follow these steps to write b:

• Start making an initial stroke from the second last bottom line and touch the top line.
• Make a small arc just like a thin loop of rope and bring it down to the second last bottom line.
• Make a round curve clockwise and keep it within the middle two lines of the four rules line.

If you practice making small thin loops like strokes, you can easily write the other letters like k and I.

After making a loop following these steps to practice f, and  h:

To write ‘h,’ make an upward curve and keep it within the middle two lines of the four lines.

To write ‘f,’ make a downward stroke and touch the fourth bottom line. Make another loop shape anticlockwise and keep it below the third bottom line.

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Step # 7

Now, it’s time to practice the curved alphabets like a, c, e, d, g, o, and q. You can start with the entrance stroke on the third bottom line and make an anticlockwise curve following each alphabet’s shape. While writing a, d, o, g and q, you need to make a full circle.

The alphabet ‘g’ is a bit difficult as you need to give a downward stroke to the circle and make another longitudinal loop-like circle that stays below the third and fourth bottom line. Still, the tip of this second circle will continue and cross above the third line.

Step # 8
By now, you will be able to move your hands and control your pen’s position to make desired curves, strokes, circles, and shapes of all the lowercase alphabets. You can practice the uppercase alphabets one by one and then write and practice words by joining all the upper and lowercase letters.

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Tips to Learn and Improve Cursive Writing

• If you are a beginner, start writing with a pencil initially, and after learning to write all cursive alphabets perfectly, you can switch to using a pen.
• There are plenty of cursive handwriting worksheets available online and offline, and you can get one to practice. Most of these worksheets contain dotted letters that help trace and practice writing in cursive.
• Never exert too much pressure on your pencil/pen while writing, and try to hold it gentle enough as you hold it while drawing anything.
• Repeat writing the same letter multiple times until you learn to write it perfectly
• If you have someone in your family/friends who writes in cursive, then take their help correcting your copies and guiding you.
• Explore our essay writing service UK and dissertation writing service UK to learn more.

Frequently Asked Questions